A federal appeals court in San Francisco allowed a landmark sexual-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart to move ahead, ruling that the seven plaintiffs were eligible for class-action status. Plaintiffs are alleging that women employed in Wal-Mart stores are paid less than male employees in comparable positions (regardless of performance ratings and seniority) and that female workers receive fewer and wait longer for promotions to in-store management positions than men. As many as 1.5 million former Wal-Mart employees may join the legal action.

The 2-1 decision by a judicial panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals comes a year and a half after the case was initially argued and submitted, and it upholds the decision made by a District Court in 2004 in the case of Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The plaintiffs also filed a motion on April 28, 2003, to certify a class of female Wal-Mart employees who may have been affected by the company’s allegedly discriminatory policies.
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An October 13 incident on a Delta Airlines flight has sparked a growing controversy over the appropriateness of breast-feeding on commercial flights. Twenty-seven-year-old New Mexico resident Emily Gillette has filed a complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission against Delta and against Freedom Airlines, who operated the Delta flight from Burlington, Vt., to New York City.

In what may prove to be a widespread show of support, nursing mothers and other advocates of public breast-feeding are planning a series of “nurse-ins” to take place tomorrow in roughly a dozen domestic airports. Similar protests have already taken place at Burlington International Airport in defense of Gillette and of nursing mothers in general. Not only is breast-feeding natural and healthy for babies, say advocates, it’s also an effective way to keep a child’s noise level down during the flight experience.
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